Giancarlo had a couple of hours in the country and he went to visit some of his relatives. His face shone with sweat, his eyes glowed with sadness and fatigue, his long hair covered his ears and his black beard continued to grow. He greeted all with affection, but he didn’t seem excited. Actually, he does not speak much whenever he arrives. As reality was checking in on him, anxiety of an uncertain future and imminent tragedy overtook his ideas and encouragement.
That first night, Giancarlo had to share a room with his carnival-giant-figure of a cousin. It is important to note that this cousin was no ordinary cousin; he was like a brother to Giancarlo. They may not have been born of the same mother, kept contact with each other, been of the same age, been going out together or spent their lives together. Nevertheless, they cared and helped each other; albeit passively.
Giancarlo was already asleep when his cousin began snoring monstrously. The cousin made constant noises seemed like he was trying to get rid of sticky weevils on the walls of the gullet. The first snore woke up Giancarlo. He turned his head over and saw a big head with a coarse face that only a person with his cousin’s stature could have. It looked like Giancarlo’s cousin was preparing to feast on a meal of rice with chicken in his dream. From the viscous saliva sliding on his cheeks, it seemed like Giancarlo’s cousin was being given a royal treat in his dream.
In his quest to sort out the mess, Giancarlo decided to make use of his pillow. He carefully removed it from the back of his neck and hit his cousin with it. So powerful was the hit that it pushed Baba to the wall; sending his dream to a pause. Surprised and shocked from the effects of an abrupt disruption of sleep, he shouted, “What happened? What! What happened?”
Giancarlo could not contain his laughter emanating from this spectacle. With the pillow firmly in the grip of his teeth, to suppress laughter, Giancarlo responded, “Nothing. I’m I hearing you speak?” No sooner did Giancarlo finish responding than his giant cousin got back to dreamland. By the time Giancarlo was done uttering his last word, his cousin was already feasting on the royal meal served specially for him in his dream. Fortunately though, there was no snoring this time round.
Although this operation was a complete success with no witnesses or punishment, Giancarlo was not satisfied yet. He wanted to make all the wrongs done to him that day right. He wanted to laugh until he could feel pain in his stomach and have tears in his eyes. This way, the sadness and anger he had felt that day could be neutralized. It had been such a horrible day for him so much so that he does not want to talk about it even today. For this reason, he made a short visit to the kitchen and came back with a large plate containing lemon juice, chopped onion, egg with garlic; all mixed in Tabasco sauce.
He then sneaked the plate and its contents next to his cousin’s body in such a way that it served a nasty concoction of its contents to his cousin. The unpleasant brew dropped little by little into the sleeping cousin’s open mouth. Giancarlo managed to bear the breath and laughter for some time and suddenly, his cousin made a burlesque and penetrating guffaw of disgust. So loud was the cry that it could be heard throughout the house. What followed next was the two cousins thumping each other with pillows.
